Mumbai traffic defeats even the best of intentions. And I disappointed myself in missing out on two of my favourite programmes – my friend Bhaichand Patel’s Kitab Khana book launch ‘I Am A Stranger Here Myself’ – specially since we started our careers in this city. And friend Kalpana Shah’s Tao Art Gallery celebrating its twentieth anniversary. Both hold special corners in my heart.
When Blitz ruled the tabloid world, its Editor Russi Karanjia, invited two young aspiring journalists to write a column on high society whores of then Bombay. They tanked themselves with Gin courage before venturing out on this assignment. I think that was Bhaichand’s first column that never appeared!
Kalpana Shah’s generosity of exhibiting lesser known artists is almost proverbial. And I walked in on one such opening and zero-ed in on a Nasreen Moochala three-dimensional box framing a 6”x4” oil which reminded me of my father’s passion. Hearing me express my joy, the next day I received it as a gift from her. And that prompted Farzana Contractor to commission a feature on my father for their popular Afternoon Despatch and Courier.
I mention Mumbai traffic because I was at the monthly Executive meeting of the Council for Fair Business Practices which meets at 4 pm in their offices at Lion’s Gate – and the welcoming book store Kitab Khana where Anil Dharkar’s LitLive was to take place at 6.30 pm is on a parallel road near Hutatma Chowk. But I only got to wish Bhaichand and race across to Prithvi in Juhu never to miss the 36th annual Zakir Hussain Memorial Concert in memory of Jennifer Kapoor to whom I owe my passion for theatre. Needless to say, I bypassed Tao opening which was scheduled at 7.30 pm and missed artist Shakti Maira whose book The Promise of Beauty and Why it Matters I released at Tao last year.
The art of complaint handling
I was invited by friend Kalpana Munshi to be on the Advisory Committee of CFPB when she became its President four years ago. The list of Founding Members headed by JRD Tata, Ramkrishna Bajaj, Soli Godrej, Fakruddin Khorakiwala and Keshub Mahindra who I have had the privilege of interacting with variously in the 50 years since its inception had me hooked on their Mahatma Gandhi axiom: A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
Newspapers and radio were the primary means of mass communication. There were fewer products and brands to choose from. And consumers had nowhere to turn to if they had a problem with what they were using. Demand was higher than supply. And power lay firmly with manufacturers.
With the dawn of globalization and the digital age, and the world wide web the scenario changed dramatically.
Today, the Council faces unique challenges – to ensure consumer welfare and safeguard reputations of manufacturers and brands. And the current President Swapnil Kothari is actively working towards providing a mobile app for consumers to speed up the process of responding to complaints.
Art with heart
We also have Prof. Vishwanath Sabale of the J.J. School of Art on our Advisory Committee and he invited me to visit the J.J. School of Art Exhibition where I saw some remarkable work done by students -- especially Animesh Kamble’s The Struggle is Real based on one phase of his life where emotions, thoughts, gestures, and body language are tamed by society but they break free. Amazing how he used a copper sheet and embossed it in relief to create this exquisite 48” by 48” frame to communicate seven emotions – by his own admission he leaves out those that matter the most. He does not display Hasya (laughter) Karuna (kind heartedness) and compassion.
Junoon jamboree
Sanjna Kapoor and Sameera Iyengar set up Junoon in 2012, an organisation that weaves art experiences into the fabric of society. Mumbai Local is a community arts initiative by Junoon. On February 29, I wound my way to the Balkrishna Cooperative Housing Society in Seven Bungalows in Andheri and amidst squeals of laughter and guitar sounds I celebrated their second anniversary… though it was their eighth year in existence since they started in the leap year! Trust Sanjna to do things wildly different!
A magical dance performance
The Kathak exponent Uma Dogra commemorates her Guru Pandit Durga Lal of the Jaipur Gharana with the
Durga Lal festival of Classical Dance every year. I was able to squeeze in the Kuchipudi and Odissi dance recitals of Shreelakshmi Goverdhan and Bijayini Satpathy at the Tata Theatre before the visual enactment at the Tata Gardens. While Shreelakshmi’s Abhinaya was captivating, their time schedules go haywire. And I had to miss the second part of the evening that started out magically. As soon as Bijayini Satpathy stepped in from the wings, the space seemed charged and magically transformed. Her Odissi costume immaculately wrapped her attractive trim figure and frame in every pleat and drape, (perfected by tailor Gulam Bhai of the Tardeo Air conditioned market who had been draping Protima Bedi for decades). Bijayini performed “Shrimati” exquisitely choreographed by Surupa Sen of Nrityagram. In her first piece we experienced the beauty of youth.
Surprising Bose revelations
Everyday there are new theatre ventures happening.
At the Tata Gardens the Playpen Performing Arts Trust presented The Bose Legacy Inked Through Letters directed by Nikhil Katara and introduced many of us to an unfamiliar political Bose. Based on 300 letters compiled into a book by Madhuri Bose, grand niece of Sarat Chandra Bose. What an unusual visual enactment it was projecting visuals on the rough stone wall of the newly-furbished Tata Garden.
Amiya Bose was born in 1915 in a family of protestors against British oppression. Amiya’s father Sarat Shandra Bose and uncle Subhash Chandra Bose were often imprisoned or detained for their revolutionary ideas. But their separation did not weaken the bond with Amiya. They wrote to him regularly from prison cells from faraway lands… leaving behind The Bose Legacy Inked Through Letters.
The cast was not the normal litany of familiar actors barring one. Music composer Santanu Ghatak, lighting director Asmit Pathare, Asif Ali Baig who has matured as an actor in delivery and diction, and Shaun Williams carried the lesson and essence of political history. But it was the unfolding of Bose’s personal life that we are familiar with - his life away from India and his marriage to an Austrian Emilie Schenki and his daughter Anita Bose Pfaff struck a familiar chord. The 70-minute Soundscape by co-writer Himali Kothari and Nikhil Katara with unobtrusive gentle keyboard and rhythms created by Keith Sequiera kept one spellbound. I was unaware that Subhash Chandra Bose came from a family of 14 Bose children!
